Jump to content

Deaths due to the Chernobyl disaster

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rhoark (talk | contribs) at 18:07, 5 June 2019 (→‎Long-latency diseases). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Chernobyl disaster, considered the worst nuclear disaster in history, occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, then part of the Soviet Union, now in Ukraine. From 1986 onward, the total death toll of the disaster has lacked consensus; as peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet and other sources have noted, it remains contested among a wide range of groups.[1][2][2][3][4][5]

While there is rough agreement that a total of either 31 or 54 people died from blast trauma or acute radiation syndrome (ARS) as a direct result of the disaster,[6][7][8] there is considerable debate concerning the accurate number of deaths due to the disaster's long-term health effects, with estimates ranging from 4,000 (per the 2005 and 2006 conclusions of a joint consortium of the United Nations and the governments of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia), to no fewer than 93,000 (per the conflicting conclusions of various scientific, health, environmental, and survivors' organizations).[1][2][3][4][5]

Differing direct, short-term death toll counts

While deaths due to the Chernobyl disaster over the longer term are the most widely debated aspect of efforts to reach consensus on the accident's death toll, opinion also varies (along a smaller range) about the number of direct, shorter term deaths due to trauma or acute radiation syndrome (ARS) that the accident caused.

Initially, the Soviet Union's toll of deaths directly caused by the Chernobyl disaster included only the two Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers killed by and in the immediate aftermath of the explosion of the plant's reactor. By late 1986, however, Soviet officials revised this official tally upwards from two to a final toll of 31, reflecting the deaths of 29 additional plant workers and first responders in the months after the accident. In the decades since the accident, many former Soviet officials and some Western sources have stood by 31 as the accident's official death toll,[6][7] making 31 the most oft-cited figure for the disaster's direct, short-term fatalities.

In 2006, responding to persistent allegations that the official figure of 31 direct deaths during and immediately following the disaster omits other confirmed trauma and ARS deaths from the same period, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) revisited the issue.[8] Citing additional deaths from trauma or ARS directly attributable to the disaster during 1986 and 1987—including those of a physician and a journalist who arrived at the plant shortly after the reactor explosion and a helicopter crew of Chernobyl liquidators who died in an aerial attempt to pour a decontaminating acetate mixture on a liquidator work area in October 1986—UNSCEAR revised the accident's immediate death toll to 54, acknowledging in the process that some groups assessing the same data place the number as low as 49 or as high as 59.[8] Several United Nations agencies have since adopted UNSCEAR's 54 figure as the official tally of short-term deaths directly attributable to the Chernobyl disaster.

For their part, some surviving evacuees of regions now included in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve argue that the official toll of the accident's direct casualties excludes trauma and ARS deaths that they themselves claim to have witnessed in the weeks and months after the reactor explosion.[9] In response, constituent agencies of the United Nations—including the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Chernobyl Forum—discount such evacuee claims as misinformation, 'urban legend,' or Radiophobia.[8]

2005 and 2006 UN reports debate

In August 1986—at the first international conference on the Chernobyl disaster—the IAEA established but did not make official a figure of 4,000 deaths as the total number of projected deaths caused by the accident over the long term. In 2005 and 2006, a joint group of the United Nations and the governments of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia—acknowledging the ongoing scientific, medical, social scientific, and public questioning of the accident's death toll that had emerged over the then-20 years since the disaster—worked to establish international consensus on the effects of the accident via a series of reports that collated 20 years of research to make official previous UN, IAEA, and World Health Organization (WHO) estimates of a total of 4,000 deaths due to disaster-related illnesses.[1][10][11]

However—as an April 2006 special report in the peer-reviewed, scientific journal Nature detailed in response—the accuracy and precision of this United Nations-led joint group's projected death toll of 4,000 were immediately contested, with several of the very scientists, physicians, and biomedical consortia whose work the joint group had cited alleging publicly that the joint group had either misrepresented their work or interpreted it out of context.[12] Others have also found fault with the United Nations-led joint group's findings in the years since their initial publication, arguing that the 4,000 figure is too low—including the Union of Concerned Scientists; surviving Chernobyl liquidators; evacuees of Chernobyl, Pripyat, and other areas now included in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve; environmental groups like Greenpeace; and several of the Ukranian and Belarussian scientists and physicians who have studied and treated relocated evacuees and liquidators over the decades since the accident.[1][13][14][3][4][2]

Liquidator mortality

Deceased Liquidators' portraits used for an anti-nuclear protest in Geneva

The uncertain and contested mortality rate of the Chernobyl liquidators is a major factor in the lack of consensus on the Chernobyl disaster's accurate death toll. Following the disaster itself, the Soviet Union organized an effort to stabilize and seal off the reactor area, still awash in radiation, using the efforts of an estimated 600,000[15][Notes 1] "liquidators" recruited from all over the Soviet Union.[16]

Since the 1990s—when the declassification of selected liquidator records prompted some direct participants to speak publicly—some with direct involvement in the liquidators' cleanup efforts have asserted that several thousand liquidators died as a result of the cleanup.[17] Other organizations claim that total liquidator deaths as a result of the cleanup operation may number at least 6,000.[18]

The National Commission for Radiation Protection of Ukraine disputed the 6,000 estimate as much too high, maintaining that a Chernobyl-cleanup-related death toll of 6,000 would outstrip confirmed liquidator deaths from all other causes—including old age and car crashes—during the period in question.[citation needed] In contrast, representatives of Kiev's National Research Centre for Radiation Medicine, the Union of Chernobyl Liquidators, and the WHO's Radiation Protection Programme argue that both the perilous conditions in which the liquidators worked and the secrecy with which the Soviet Union shrouded the highly-classified disaster cleanup efforts not only preclude dismissing a liquidator death toll of 6,000, but also indicate that the 6,000 estimate might be too low.[14]

Similarly, since the declassification of additional records in the early 2000s, some surviving Chernobyl liquidators have argued publicly that official records and bureaucratic assessments do not reflect the full scope of liquidators' claims of disaster-related deaths. Examples of such claims include the comments of surviving liquidators in the Prix Italia-winning 2006 documentary, The Battle of Chernobyl,[17] as well as Valeriy Starodumov's comments in the 2011, Ukranian documentary Chornobyl.3828, which chronicles Starodumov's, and other liquidators' work and posits its long-term effects on their lives and health.[19]

Long-latency diseases

Issues related to identifying and tracking long-latency diseases have presented another stumbling block to reaching consensus on deaths beyond the immediate fatalities directly attributable to the initial reactor explosion and subsequent ARS. In the years since the accident, delayed, post-disaster deaths due to solid cancers, leukemia, and other long-latency diseases that might be attributable to the accident's release of radioactive debris have remained an ongoing concern. However, the streamlined standards, methods, and sustained research efforts needed to pinpoint, track, and tally such long-latency disease deaths have remained lacking—resulting in gaps in data and divergent estimates.[14][12][1] There is consensus for only one form of long-term physiological effect: thyroid cancer in those who consumed radioactive iodine as children.[20] Of those in the exposed cohort who have developed thyroid cancers, the proportion of cancers attributable to the Chernobyl incident is estimated to be between 7% and 50%.[21]

For example, in a widely-cited 2008 report, the IAEA reaffirmed its August 1986 conclusion—initially reached at the first international conference on the accident (an event closed to the press and citizen observers) and made official in 2005 and 2006—of a projected 4,000 premature deaths as a result of the disaster.[11] The IAEA based this 4,000 figure on its estimate of a 3% increase in cancers in the regions surrounding the plant,[22] first adopting it at the 1986 conference after rejecting the finding of 40,000 projected deaths that Valery Legasov—inorganic chemist and a lead investigator of the Soviet Union's official Chernobyl disaster commission—had estimated based upon his team's research.[17]

Yet in the five years immediately following the 1986 accident, Ukranian officials and scientists confirmed a regional cancer rate increase of well over 5% in adults[23] and 90% in the region's children.[24] By 2005, the Ukranian government alone was providing survivors' benefits to 19,000 families "owing to the loss of a breadwinner whose death was deemed to be related to the Chernobyl accident;"[24] by 2019, this figure had risen to 35,000 families.[25] By 2016, some Ukranian and Belarussian physicians charged with treating large numbers of former liquidators in the decades since the accident were calling for more comprehensive studies and urging that the IAEA's estimated toll of disaster-related deaths from long-latency diseases be revised upwards, claiming that their own data indicates a former liquidator death rate of several thousand per year as a result of diseases related to the disaster.[14]

Meanwhile, some non-governmental organizations—disputing the work of both the IAEA and governmental authorities alike—have projected up to a million excess, cancer-related deaths from the Chernobyl disaster.[26] The Chernobyl Forum, the WHO, and some other international agencies deem such estimates much too large.[26]

Methodological debates

The use of differing, contested methods to identify and tally deaths—including anticipated deaths due to long-latency diseases—has also contributed to the wide range of estimates of the Chernobyl disaster's death toll. As former IAEA head Hans Blix has recalled in interviews,[17] such disagreement over various tabulation methods and the divergent death tolls that they yield has been a mainstay of efforts to estimate the disaster's total fatalities since international authorities' first attempts to establish a consensus death toll.[17]

Indeed, at the August 1986 meeting of the first international conference on the disaster, the IAEA scaled down from 40,000 to 4,000 the projected disaster-related deaths estimate of Valery Legasov—inorganic chemist and a lead investigator of the Soviet Union's official commission—after objecting to Legasov's use of a statistical model based on radiation data from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[17] (It is this 4,000 figure from the 1986 conference's methodological debate that the IAEA cited as its rough estimate for 20 years before joining other United Nations agencies in 2005 and 2006 to make 4,000 the UN's official estimate of disaster-related deaths.[11] Similarly, some theoretical estimates of the disaster's deaths are disputed on the grounds that they rely upon contested models such as the linear no-threshold model (LNT) or hormesis in order to compare the disaster's estimated cancer rates to background rates of cancer.[3][4][27]

Yet even estimated death tolls that have acknowledged and attempted to mitigate for such methodological debates have yielded a body of divergent estimates—including the Union of Concerned Scientists' 2011, LNT-model-based conclusion of 27,000 deaths due to the accident;[28] the death toll of 93,000 to 200,000 that Greenpeace has posited since 2006;[29][30] and Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment (published in 2007 by Russian affiliates of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, but without NYAS' explicit approval),[31][Notes 2] which estimates 985,000 premature deaths as a result of the radioactivity the accident released.[32]

Surviving evacuees' accounts

Since 1986, officials have tended to discount as inaccurate, inexpert opinion the claims of some surviving Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and Polesie State Radioecological Reserve evacuees that their own observations of deaths attributable to the disaster are not reflected in official records and tallies. For example, authorities have long dismissed as 'urban legend' some Pripyat evacuees' claims of high death rates among fellow citizens who gathered on a railway bridge—the so-called 'Bridge of Death'—to watch the exploded reactor's blazing fire and glowing, electric blue column of ionized air in the midst of visible nuclear fallout on the night of the accident.[33][34][35]

Indeed, some authorities have argued that post-disaster psychological trauma—sometimes characterized as Radiophobia or labeled a mental aspect of the collection of post-accident symptoms that some physicians term 'Chernobyl Syndrome'[36]—has led some former residents of the region surrounding the plant to attribute deaths to the accident based on anecdotal evidence alone.[36] In this vein, the Chernobyl Forum, the World Nuclear Association (WNA), and other groups posit an increase in psychological problems among those exposed to the disaster's radiation, due in part to poor communication of radiation's effects, disruption to their way of life, and trauma surrounding the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[37][38]

In response, some former residents of the region that now comprises the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and Polesie State Radioecological Reserve—including Lyubov Sirota, a Ukranian poet and Pripyat evacuee, in her 1995, Chernobyl Poems verse, "Radiophobia,"[39] and her 2013 memoir, The Pripyat Syndrome[40]—decry such questioning of survivors' psychology and discernment as efforts to dismiss and de-legitimize both evacuees' claimed long-term experience of the disaster's lethal impacts and evacuees' allegations of the accident's tangible, ongoing effects upon their physical health. In her 1988 poem, "They Did Not Register Us (To Vasily Deomidovich Dubodel),"[39] Sirota addresses what she considers the failure of local and international authorities to recognize the disaster-related, long-latency disease deaths of Chernobyl Exclusion Zone evacuees and to reach consensus about how best to tally and study these deaths.[39] She wrote:[41]

They did not register us / and our deaths / were not linked to the accident. / ... / They wrote us off as / lingering stress, / cunning genetic disorders. ... / [T]housands of 'competent' functionaries / count our 'souls' in percentages. ... / They wrote us off. / ...

Still more controversially, some surviving Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and Polesie State Radioecological Reserve evacuees take particular issue with the longstanding position of constituent United Nations agencies to discount as misinformation, 'urban legend', or Radiophobia the claims of some evacuees that during the weeks and months directly after the accident, they witnessed more immediate disaster-related deaths due to trauma and radiation sickness that they argue are not reflected in the official record.[9][8] For example, Nikolai Kalugin—an evacuee from a village now included in Belarus' Polesie State Radioecological Reserve—claimed to Newsweek in May 2019 that his daughter died in the weeks after the accident as the result of what he maintains were unrecorded local cases of radiation sickness:[42]

They brought a little coffin. ... It was small, like the box for a large doll. I want to bear witness: my daughter died from Chernobyl. And they want us to forget about it.

For their part, the United Nations and some prominent Chernobyl disaster scholars continue to discount as mistaken or Radiophobic such evacuee claims of additional, short-term, direct deaths due to accident-attributable trauma or radiation sickness not counted in the official tallies of the accident's death toll.[35][6][8]

Official list of direct deaths

The 31 persons listed in the table below are those whose deaths the Soviet Union included in its official roster—released in the latter half of 1986—of casualties directly attributable to the disaster.[Notes 3][8]

Table: Known Deaths due to Trauma and Radiation Sickness
Official list
[Notes 4] 		Name (Eng/Rus): Last, First, Patronym[Notes 5]
 Date and place of birth Date and place of death Cause of death/injury Occupation Description Official Recognition
Yes Akimov, Aleksandr Fyodorovich
Акимов, Александр Фёдорович		 1953-05-06, Novosibirsk 1986-05-10, Moscow ARS; burns on 100% of body, estimated 15 grays (1,500 rad) dose. Unit #4 Shift leader A senior reactor operator, at the controls in the control room at the time of the explosion; received fatal dose during attempts to restart feedwater flow into the reactor. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree[43][44]
Yes Baranov, Anatoly Ivanovich
Баранов, Анатолий Иванович
1953-06-13, Tsyurupynsk, Kherson, Ukrainian SSR 1986-05-20, Moscow ARS Senior electrical engineer Managed generators during emergency, preventing fire spread through the generator hall. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree; Soviet Union's Order of the October Revolution[43][44]
Yes Brazhnik, Vyacheslav Stepanovych
Бражник, Вячеслав Степанович
1957-05-03, Atbasar, Tselinograd, Kazakh SSR 1986-05-14 ARS Senior turbine machinist operator In the turbine hall at the moment of explosion. Received fatal dose (over 1000 rad) during firefighting and stabilizing the turbine hall, died in Moscow hospital. Irradiated by a piece of fuel lodged on a nearby transformer of turbogenerator 7 during manual opening of the turbine emergency oil drain valves. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree;[43] Soviet Union's Order of the Badge of Honor.[44]
Yes Degtyarenko, Viktor Mykhaylovych
Дегтяренко, Виктор Михайлович		 1954-08-10, Ryazan, Russian SFSR 1986-05-19, Moscow ARS Reactor operator Close to the pumps at the moment of explosion.[45] face scalded by steam or hot water.[46] Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree;[43] Soviet Union's Order of the Badge of Honor.[44]
Yes Ignatenko, Vasyli Ivanovych
Игнатенко, Василий Иванович		 1961-03-13, Sperizhe, Gomel, Byelorussian SSR 1986-05-13, Moscow ARS Squad commander, 6th Paramilitary Fire/Rescue Unit, Pripyat, Kiev Chief Sergeant, first crew on the reactor roof. Received fatal dose during attempt to extinguish the roof and the reactor core fire. He was survived by his pregnant wife Lyudmilla. Her child died shortly after birth due to a heart failure and a cirrhosis of the liver, caused by contamination.[47] Hero of Ukraine with Order of the Gold Star; Cross for Courage; The Soviet Union's Order of the Red Banner.[44]
Yes Ivanenko, Yekaterina Alexandrovna
Иваненко, Екатерина Александровна		 1932-09-11, Nezhihov, Gomel, Byelorussian SSR 1986-05-26, Moscow ARS Security guard Guarded a gate opposite to the Block 4, stayed on duty for the entire night until morning.[48] Soviet Union's Order of the Red Banner.[44]
Yes Khodemchuk, Valery Ilyich
Ходемчук, Валерий Ильич		 1951-03-24, Krapyvnya, Ivankov, Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR 1986-04-26, Chernobyl NPP unknown, likely explosion trauma Senior operator, Main circulating pump, reactor 4 Stationed in the southern main circulating pumps engine room, likely killed immediately; body never found, likely buried under the wreckage of the steam separator drums. Has a memorial sign in the Reactor 4 building. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree.[43]
Yes Kibenok, Viktor Mykolayovych
Кибенок, Виктор Николаевич		 1963-02-17, Sirohozskoho, Kherson, Ukrainian SSR 1986-05-11, Moscow ARS Head guard, 6th Paramilitary Fire/Rescue Unit, Pripyat, Kiev Lieutenant, leader of the second unit, fighting fires in the reactor department, separator room, and the central hall. Soviet Union's Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 25, 1986.[44]
Yes Konoval, Yuriy Ivanovych
Коновал, Юрий Иванович		 1942-01-01, Ust-Pier, Altai ASSR 1986-05-28, Moscow ARS Electrician Managed machinery and fought fires in the 4th and 5th block. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree;[43] Soviet Union's Badge of Honor.[44]
Yes Kudryavtsev, Aleksandr Gennadiyevych
Кудрявцев, Александр Геннадиевич		 1957-12-11, Kirov, Russian SSR 1986-05-14, Moscow ARS Reactor control chief engineer candidate Present in the control room at the moment of explosion; received fatal dose of radiation during attempt to manually lower the control rods as he looked directly to the open reactor core. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree.[43]
Yes Kurguz, Anatoly Kharlampiyovych
Кургуз, Анатолий Харлампиевич		 1957-06-12, Unechskoho, Bryansk, Russian SSR 1986-05-12, Moscow ARS Senior reactor operator, central hall Scalded by radioactive steam entering his control room at the epicenter of the explosion, he helped rescue personnel; his colleague, Oleg Genrikh, survived. USSR's Order of Lenin; Ukraine's Cross for Courage.[44]
Yes Lelechenko, Aleksandr Grigoryevich
Лелеченко, Александр Григорьевич		 1938-07-26, Lubensky, Poltava, Ukrainian SSR 1986-05-07, Kiev, Ukrainian SSR ARS, 25 Gy (2,500 rad) Deputy chief of the electrical shop Former Leningrad power plant electrical shop shift leader[49] at the central control room with Kukhar; at the moment of explosion just arrived to the block 4 control room;[50] in order to spare his younger colleagues of radiation exposure, he went through radioactive water and debris three times to switch off the electrolyzers and the feed of hydrogen to the generators, then tried to supply voltage to the feedwater pumps. USSR's Order of Lenin, the title of Hero of Ukraine on awarding of the Order of the Gold Star; Ukraine's Cross for Courage.[44]
Yes Lopatyuk, Viktor Ivanovich
Лопатюк, Виктор Иванович		 1960-08-22, Lilov, Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR 1986-05-17, Moscow ARS Electrician Received a fatal dose while switching off the electrolyzer.[51] USSR's Order of Lenin; Ukraine's Cross for Courage.[44]
Yes Luzganova, Klavdia Ivanovna
Лузганова, Клавдия Ивановна		 1927-05-09 1986-07-31, Moscow ARS, estimated 6 grays (600 rad) exposure Security guard[52] Guarded the construction site of the spent fuel storage building about 200 meters from Block 4.[48] Soviet Union's Order of the Red Banner.[44]
Yes Novyk, Aleksandr Vasylyovych
Новик, Александр Васильевич		 1961-08-11, Dubrovytsky, Rivne, Ukrainian SSR 1986-07-26, Moscow ARS Turbine equipment machinist-inspector Received fatal dose (over 10 grays (1,000 rad)) during firefighting and stabilizing the turbine hall. Irradiated by a piece of fuel lodged on a nearby transformer of the turbo-generator 7 during attempts to call the control room. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree[43]
Yes Orlov, Ivan Lukych
Орлов, Иван Лукич		 1945-01-10 1986-05-13 ARS Physicist Received fatal dose during attempts to restart feedwater flow into the reactor.
Yes Perchuk, Kostyantyn Grigorovich
Перчук, Константин Григорьевич		 1952-11-23, Magadan, Kolyma, Russian SSR 1986-05-20, Moscow ARS Turbine operator, senior engineer In the turbine hall at the moment of explosion; received fatal dose (over 10 grays (1,000 rad)) during firefighting and stabilizing the turbine hall. Irradiated by a piece of fuel lodged on a nearby transformer of the turbo-generator 7 during manual opening of the turbine emergency oil drain valves. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree;[43]
Yes Perevozchenko, Valery Ivanovich
Перевозченко, Валерий Иванович		 1947-05-06, Starodub, Bryansk, Russian SSR 1986-06-13, Moscow ARS foreman, reactor section Received fatal dose of radiation during attempt to locate and rescue Khodemchuk and others, and manually lower the control rods; together with Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov he looked directly to the open reactor core, suffering radiation burns on side and back. Made extra efforts to save fellow crew. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree.[43]
Yes Popov, Georgi Illiaronovich
Попов, Георгий Илларионович		 1940-02-21 1986-06-13 ARS Employee of the Kharkiv "Turboatom" plant (a NPP subcontractor) Vibration specialist, mobile truck-based laboratory at Turbine 8; assisted in holding the turbine room fires in check.[53]
Yes Pravik, Vladimir Pavlovych
Правик, Владимир Павлович		 1962-06-13, Chernobyl, Kiev, Ukrainian SSR 1986-05-11, Moscow ARS Head Guard, 2nd Paramilitary Fire Brigade, Chernobyl NPP Lieutenant, leader of the first crew on the reactor roof, repeatedly visited the reactor and the roof of Unit C at Level 71 to supervise the firefighting; received fatal dose during attempt to extinguish the roof and the reactor core. His eyes are said to have been turned from brown to blue by the intensity of the radiation.[54] Named a Hero of the Soviet Union with the awarding of the Order of Lenin, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 25, 1986.[44]
Yes Proskuryakov, Viktor Vasilyevich
Проскуряков, Виктор Васильович		 1955-04-09, Svobodnyj, Amur, Russian SSR 1986-05-17, Moscow ARS Reactor Control Chief Engineer candidate Present in the control room at the moment of explosion; received fatal dose of radiation during attempt to manually lower the control rods as he looked directly onto the open reactor core and suffered 100% radiation burns. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree;[43] Soviet Union's Order of Courage.[44]
Yes Savenkov, Vladimir Ivanovych
Савенков, Владимир Иванович		 1958-02-15 1986-05-21 ARS Employee of the Kharkiv "Turboatom" plant (a NPP subcontractor) Vibration specialist, mobile truck-based laboratory at Turbine 8; first one to become sick; buried in Kharkiv in a lead coffin.[53]
Yes Shapovalov, Anatoliy Ivanovych
Шаповалов, Анатолий Иванович		 1941-04-06, Kirovograd, Ukrainian SSR 1986-05-19, Moscow ARS Electrician Fought fires and managed electrical equipment. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree;[43] USSR's Order of Friendship of Peoples.[44]
Yes Shashenok, Vladimir Nikolaevich
Шашенок, Владимир Николаевич		 1951-04-21, Schucha Dam, Chernihiv, Ukrainian SSR 1986-04-26, Kyiv thermal and radiation burns, trauma Employee of the "Atomenergonaladka" (Chernobyl startup and adjustment company, a NPP subcontractor), adjuster of automatic systems Stationed in Room 604, found unconscious and pinned down under a fallen beam, with broken spine, broken ribs, deep thermal and radiation burns. He died in the hospital without regaining consciousness. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree; USSR's Order of Courage.[44]
Yes Sitnikov, Anatoly Andreyevich
Ситников, Анатолий Андреевич		 1940-01-20, Voskresenka, Primorye, Russian SSR 1986-05-30, Moscow ARS Deputy chief operational engineer, physicist Received fatal dose (about 1500 roentgen), mostly to the head after being sent by Nikolai Fomin to survey the reactor hall and peek at the reactor from the roof of Unit C. USSR's Order of Lenin; Ukraine's Cross for Courage.[44]
Yes Telyatnikov, Leonid Petrovich
Телятников, Леонид Петрович		 1951-01-25, Vvedenka, Kustanai, Kazakh SSR 2004-12-02, Kyiv died of cancer 18 years after receiving an estimated 4 grays (400 rad) dose. Head of the 2nd Paramilitary Fire Brigade, Chernobyl NPP Chief of the power plant fire department. Coordinated all fire fighting efforts. After Chernobyl, he stayed with the Soviet internal force, and later the Ukraine internal forces, retired a general in 1995. Hero of the Soviet Union with the awarding the Order of Lenin by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 25, 1986; Ukraine's Cross for Courage.[44]
Yes Tishchura, Vladimir Ivanovych
Тищура, Владимир Иванович		 1959-12-15, North Station, Leningrad, Russian SSR 1986-05-10, Moscow ARS Senior firefighter, 6th Paramilitary Fire/Rescue Unit, Pripyat, Kiev Sergeant, Kibenok's unit, fighting fires in the reactor department, separator room, and the central hall. Hero of Ukraine on awarding the Order of the Gold Star; Ukraine's Cross for Courage; USSR's Order of Red Banner.[44]
Yes Titenok, Nikolai Ivanovych
Титенок, Николай Иванович		 1962-12-05, Mykolaivka, Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR 1986-05-16, Moscow external and internal radiation burns, blistered heart Firefighter, 6th Paramilitary Fire/Rescue Unit, Pripyat, Kiev Chief Sergeant, Kibenok's unit, fighting fires in the reactor department, separator room, and the central hall; received fatal dose during attempt to extinguish the roof and the reactor core. Hero of Ukraine on awarding the Order of the Gold Star; Ukraine's Cross for Courage; USSR's Order of Red Banner.[44]
Yes Toptunov, Leonid Fedorovych
Топтунов, Леонид Федорович		 1960-08-16, Mykolaivka, Burinskiy, Sumy, Russian SSR 1986-05-14, Moscow ARS Senior reactor control chief engineer In the control room at the reactor control panel at the moment of explosion, with Akimov; received fatal dose during attempts to restart feedwater flow into the reactor. Ukraine's Order For Courage of the third degree.[43]
Yes Vashchuk, Nikolai Vasilievich
Ващук, Николай Васильевич		 1959-06-05, Haicheng, Zhitomir, Ukrainian SSR 1986-05-14, Moscow ARS Squad commander, 6th Paramilitary Fire/Rescue Unit, Pripyat, Kiev A sergeant in Kibenok's unit, he fought fires in the reactor department, separator room, and the central hall. Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the Gold Star.[44]
Yes Vershynin, Yuriy Anatoliyovych
Вершинин, Юрий Анатольевич		 1959-05-22, Zuyevskaya, Kirov, Russian SSR 1986-07-21, Moscow ARS Turbine equipment machinist-inspector In the turbine hall at the moment of explosion; received over 10 Gy (1,000 rad) dose during firefighting and stabilizing the turbine hall. Irradiated by a piece of fuel lodged on a nearby transformer of the turbogenerator 7 during attempts to call the control room. Ukraine's Order For Courage of third degree;[43] Soviet Union's Order of the Badge of Honor.[44]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ According to the World Health Organization, the Soviet Union issued 600,000 certificates to Chernobyl liquidators, making 600,000 the most oft-cited tally of their total numbers. However, other tallies—including published figures of 240,000, 350,000, 500,000, 750,000, and 800,000 total liquidators—often appear in secondary-source accounts of the post-disaster cleanup campaign.
  2. ^ From "Statement on Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences volume entitled Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment": "[The] Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences volume Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment ... does not present new, unpublished work, nor is it a work commissioned by the NYA. The expressed views of the authors, or by advocacy groups or individuals with specific opinions about the Annals Chernobyl volume, are their own. Although the NYAS believes it has a responsibility to provide open forums for discussion of scientific questions, the Academy has no intent to influence legislation by providing such forums. The Academy is committed to publishing content deemed scientifically valid by the general scientific community, from whom the Academy carefully monitors feedback."
  3. ^ Some groups, including the UNSCEAR, posit slightly higher direct death tallies of 49, 54, or 59. (See § Differing direct, short-term death toll counts.)
  4. ^ The indicated people are on the official list—first issued in the latter half of 1986—of the 31 official deaths caused by the Chernobyl accident.
  5. ^ The disaster relief operation, as well as the whole work of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, was directly supervised by the Soviet government using exclusively Russian language. Directly translated into wide English use, respective names and terms may differ from their local Ukrainian or Belarusian spelling/pronunciation. Names use eastern European naming conventions.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Parfitt, Tom (April 26, 2006). "Opinion remains divided over Chernobyl's true toll". The Lancet. pp. 1305–1306. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d Ahlstrom, Dick (April 2, 2016). "Chernobyl anniversary: The disputed casualty figures". The Irish Times. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d Mycio, Mary (April 26, 2013). "How Many People Have Really Been Killed by Chernobyl? Why estimates differ by tens of thousands of deaths". Slate. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d Ritchie, Hannah (July 24, 2017). "What was the death toll from Chernobyl and Fukushima?". Our World in Data. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  5. ^ a b Highfield, Roger (April 21, 2011). "How many died because of the Chernobyl disaster? We don't really know (Article updated May 7, 2019)". New Scientist. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  6. ^ a b c "The impact of Chernobyl's nuclear disaster 33 years later". PBS NewsHour Weekend. April 21, 2019. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  7. ^ a b Wellerstein, Alex (April 26, 2016). "The Battles of Chernobyl". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Health effects due to radiation from the Chernobyl accident (Annex D of the 2008 UNSCEAR Report) (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-04, retrieved 2016-01-11 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ a b Whalen, Andrew (May 6, 2019). "Chernobyl Disaster's First Responders Share True Stories of Death and Radiation". Newsweek. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  10. ^ "WHO | Chernobyl: the true scale of the accident". www.who.int. Archived from the original on 2018-02-25. Retrieved 2018-03-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ a b c Looking Back to go Forward: IAEA report 2008, p4
  12. ^ a b "Special Report: Counting the dead". Nature. April 19, 2006. pp. 982–983. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  13. ^ World Health Organization (April 25, 2016). "1986–2016: Chernobyl at 30". Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  14. ^ a b c d Borys, Christian (April 26, 2016). "Return to Chernobyl with Ukraine's 'liquidators': The remaining members of a brigade of firefighters return to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone 30 years after the disaster". AlJazeera.com. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  15. ^ "WHO: Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programs, 2006, p.2" (PDF). World Health Organization.
  16. ^ Mallonee, Laura (September 8, 2018). "The 'Liquidators' Who Risked It All to Clean Up Chernobyl". Wired Magazine. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Johnson, Thomas (Director) (2006). The Battle of Chernobyl (Documentary) (Motion picture). Italy: Play Films.
  18. ^ Marples, David R. (May 1996). Chernobyl: The Decade of Despair (Report). Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. p. 20..
  19. ^ Zabolotnyy, Serhiy (Director) (2011). Chornobyl.3828 (Documentary) (Motion picture). Ukraine: Studio "Telecon".
  20. ^ McLean AR; et al. "A restatement of the natural science evidence base concerning the health effects of low-level ionizing radiation" (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society B. doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.1070.
  21. ^ "EVALUATION OF DATA ON THYROID CANCER IN REGIONS AFFECTED BY THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT" (PDF). United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
  22. ^ "Chernobyl: the true scale of the accident". WHO. WHO/IAEA/UNDP. Archived from the original on 2015-09-07. Retrieved 31 August 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ Bendarjevskiy, Anton (Director) (2011). Chernobyl's Heritage: The Zone (Csernobil Öröksége: A Zóna) (Documentary) (Motion picture). Hungary: Azimuth Film.
  24. ^ a b Plokhy, Serhii (April 26, 2018). "The True Cost of the Chernobyl Disaster Has Been Greater Than It Seems". Time Magazine. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  25. ^ Dizikes, Peter (March 5, 2019). "Chernobyl: How bad was it?: A scholar's book uncovers new material about the effects of the infamous nuclear meltdown (review of Chernobyl: A Manual for Survival)". MIT News Office. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  26. ^ a b Vidal, John (March 25, 2006). "UN accused of ignoring 500,000 Chernobyl deaths". The Guardian. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  27. ^ Jaworowski, Zbigniew (January 28, 2010). "Observations on the Chernobyl Disaster and LNT". Dose Response. pp. 148–171. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  28. ^ How Many Cancers Did Chernobyl Really Cause?, UCSUSA.org, 17 April 2011, archived from the original on 2011-04-21, retrieved 2018-05-08 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ Greenpeace rejects Chernobyl toll, BBC, 18 April 2006, archived from the original on 2018-04-19, retrieved 8 May 2018 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ Hawley, Charles (April 18, 2006). "Greenpeace vs. the United Nations The Chernobyl Body Count Controversy". Der Spiegel. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  31. ^ "Statement on Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences volume entitled Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment", Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1181, New York Academy of Sciences, April 28, 2010, archived from the original on 2018-05-09, retrieved 2018-05-08 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  32. ^ "Details" (PDF), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, archived from the original on 2013-08-19, retrieved 8 May 2018 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  33. ^ Willsher, Kim (March 7, 2016). "Chernobyl 30 years on: former residents remember life in the ghost city of Pripyat". The Guardian. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  34. ^ "A view from the bridge: The tragedy of Chernobyl—Three new books reconsider the impact of the worst-ever nuclear catastrophe (Review of Manual for Survival, Midnight in Chernobyl, and Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy)". The Economist. March 7, 2019. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  35. ^ a b Stover, Dawn (May 5, 2019). "The human drama of Chernobyl (Interview with Midnight in Chernobyl Author Adam Higginbotham)". Bulltein of Atomic Scientists. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  36. ^ a b Novikau, Aliaksandr (February 3, 2016). "What is 'Chernobyl Syndrome?' The Use of Radiophobia in Nuclear Communications". Environmental Communication. pp. 800–809. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  37. ^ Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts (PDF) (Report). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-02-15. {{cite report}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  38. ^ "Health Impacts, Chernobyl Accident, Appendix 2". World Nuclear Association. 2009. Archived from the original on 2014-06-17. Retrieved 22 June 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  39. ^ a b c Sirota, Liubov (1995). Chernobyl Poems. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  40. ^ Sirota, Liubov (2013). The Pripyat Syndrome. ISBN 978-1490970981. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  41. ^ Sirota. Chernobyl Poems.
  42. ^ Whalen (May 6, 2019). "Chernobyl Disaster's First Responders Share True Stories of Death and Radiation". Newsweek. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  43. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "History does not know the words 'too late' – Publications. Materials about: Pripyat, Chernobyl accident". Pripyat.com. 2007-07-23. Archived from the original on 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  44. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v "Chernobyl NPP Heros". Archived from the original on 2014-04-29. Retrieved 28 April 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  45. ^ "Leopolis: April 2006". Leopolis.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on 2010-10-16. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  46. ^ Sergey Petrov. "Сразу же после аварии на ЧАЭС". Bluesbag6.narod.ru. Archived from the original on 2011-09-06. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  47. ^ "Svetlana Alexievich: Voices from Chernobyl. Dalkey Archive Press: 2005. Originally published as: Чернобыльска. Moліtва. Eдitioнс Oсtojie: 1997" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-09. Retrieved 2014-06-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  48. ^ a b "Г.Медведев Чернобыльская Тетрадь". Library.narod.ru. Archived from the original on 2010-11-26. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  49. ^ "Как готовился взрыв Чернобыля. (Воспоминания В.И.Борца.) – Версии г.Припять ( Чернобыль)". Pripyat.com. 2007-07-23. Archived from the original on 2010-05-01. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  50. ^ "Документы ЧАЭС: Свидетельства очевидцев и показания свидетелей " ЧАЭС Зона отчуждения". Chernobil.info. 1999-02-22. Archived from the original on 2011-08-13. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  51. ^ Lisova, Natasha. "Nation & World | Far from their buried husbands, Chernobyl widows still cope with loss | Seattle Times Newspaper". Community.seattletimes.nwsource.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-02. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  52. ^ "Лузганова Клавдия Ивановна / Прочие катастрофы / Чернобыльская авария 26 апреля 1986 г". Pomnimih.ru. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  53. ^ a b "Последняя командировка [Архив] – Forum on pripyat.com". Forum.pripyat.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  54. ^ Adam Higginbotham (2006-03-26). "Adam Higginbotham: Chernobyl 20 years on | World news | The Observer". London: Guardian. Archived from the original on 2013-08-30. Retrieved 2010-03-22. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deaths_due_to_the_Chernobyl_disaster&oldid=900441300"